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elwood blooz wrote:My XD.45 is my daily. I carry at work but for different reasons than most.
I manage 725 acre mine, all but 100 acres hasn't been timbered sine the late 70's. Two incidents made me carry. Three guys looking for their cattle came right up on me on horseback, no noise at all. If I wasn't carrying the scenario maybe different right now. The second is when you walk up on a 300+ lb boar nesting, I don't think thte 9mm is going to stop him fast enough!

LOL, I'd have to agree with you there, Dude! I'd probably choose to carry my USP45 in your circumstances.

mcub wrote:I kind of feel out of place replying to this one, but here it goes.
I really only have the chl to cover me legally when I toss my gun in the camera bag, for snakes and other critters that might bug me. I rarely carry one in my car, unless I’m going to a range latter in the day and it’s just convenient to take it with me from the get go and not worry about traffic stops.

So I would like to offer a suggestion along a different observation.
Mechanically all the guns and calibers you mentioned are reliable.

Determine how much ammo you will use in practice/play with the gun.
Compare costs, and give extreme consideration to what you are comfortable with handling and funding. Don’t get bogged down trying to figure out the most lethal bullet weight, caliber and size.

I basically concur with your point here. Moreover, this is essentially why I default to the 9mm as my preferred all-around pistol caliber. I have a .45, simply because it's fun to shoot and I like having one big-bore pistol , but the ammo costs alone make it impractical for me to shoot the pistol frequently.

Some consideration of the effectiveness of various defensive rounds (i.e., jacketed hollow point ammo) is appropriate, but I agree that most folks don't need to fixate on this issue. Simply speaking, I just asked my LEO friends what duty ammo they prefer, and I got a few rounds to practice with. Once I was certain that my weapons would reliably feed Ranger-T/Federal HST ammo, I adopted these rounds for my personal defense needs. I figure that if these rounds work for cops, why not me?

This is analagous to a hunter who decides undertake some research on the best hunting round (e.g., ballistic tip, hollow point, soft pointed, etc.) for his intended purposes. Depending on the animal, a different round/bullet style could/will be required. Obviously, we aren't "hunting" any humans here, but I kind of like knowing which rounds are most effective on would-be assailants.

Skiprr wrote:For those who may not have seen Mas Ayoob's "Cop Talk" article in the current issue of American Handgunner (p38), I thought I'd share an interesting picture comparing the Winchester Ranger-T expansion in 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP:

Those are some real nasty lookin' critters right there, particularly the .45! The new 124 gr. 9mm round expands very well for its relatively small size/weight, but Ayoob should have depicted a recovered 147-gr. 9mm Ranger-T round...the larger/heavier 147 gr. 9mm Ranger-T is more comparable to the .40 S&W Ranger-T.

Between 9mm and .40 S&W, I choose 9mm.

Why? Because: 1) I'm accustomed to shooting the 9mm, and have been for 15+ years, 2) there are many quality 9mm defense loads (*FWIW, I prefer Winchester Ranger-T followed by Federal Tactical HST rounds) that provide good penetration/stopping power without the extra recoil/noise of the .40 S&W, and 3) 9mm practice ammo is cheaper than .40 S&W, particularly with the imminent across-the-board price-hike that's coming from many U.S. ammo companies in September. By the way, in light of this coming price-hike, all you guys and gals should be stocking up on practice ammo right now for your guns, particularly the military calibers (9mm, 5.56mm, 7.62mm, etc.)!

I do happen to own a .45 caliber pistol though (H&K USP45), and I'd pick that pistol/caliber as my absolute favorite manstopper!